Eight years of fragile and amorphous memories form into layers of sounds intended to open the whole body to the celestial world. Using generative compositional methods, she recorded fragments of melodies on days of full moons, new moons, planetary conjunctions and around other notable events happening in the skies. Her digital sounds take on a humble, human sound as she observes the vastness above.
A massive galaxy cluster bending light
This is the new era of stars! We are witnessing the birth of new celestial discoveries, extragalactic phenomena whose origins have been a mystery. Anyone on the face of the Earth can commune with the cosmos. I have so many questions, and the artist Sawako has provided by email some words of elegant clarity which I would like to share with you today. With these sounds, Sawako celebrates astronomy and expresses wonderment. “I hope Stella Epoca will become a sound-amulet in the future lives of listeners. I hope people will enjoy creating their own constellations with these sound-stories.” This is not about fancy dancing beats, or anything like a complicated big science glossy production, this is about sharing honest ideas, being strong and humble, and cherishing a musical safe-haven. I feel like this is an extension of the curiosity to see what’s on the other side of the next hill, putting this time capsule out into space for all of time, as massive galaxies are forming new stars at a modest rate.
I asked about her process, and where she drew her ideas from, Sawako told me that it has taken her 8 years to complete this album. I said that I think this is a very unique sound, minimal, a quiet and open atmosphere, sometimes with several things going on, such as piano, vocals, sho, hand percussion and flute, sax, clarinet, a massive galaxy cluster bending light. There is no disruption of the dreamy mood, floating and listening. Sawako reveals that “so many memories are layered, blurred and convoluted that I don’t clearly remember what was the starting point.”
I hear recordings of real-life simple and unique moments, incorporated into the other recording effects, making a very true-to-that-moment sound source that is sampled, mostly this creates a space to breathe, keeping the flow in a calm and reflective direction. Sawako is posing questions about outer space, she has a lovely youthful floating ethereal voice, and she provides interesting track titles. Faint signals are sometimes detectable with a sensitive enough imagination. Sending and receiving a signal from the cosmos could single-handedly rewrite human history and open a new chapter of our very own existence. The very act of creating a message and sending it out may capture imaginations here on Earth and allow humans to think more deeply about our place in the universe.
Imagine how the universe would look rendered with watercolor ::
Imagine how the universe would look rendered with watercolor, layers of paint sublimating and fading. The ideas of sky maps and planetary frequencies were the inspirations behind Japanese artist Sawako’s dreamlike sounds. She references orbits, sound waves and light that showers the earth and all living things in ephemeral encounters of fulguration and resonance. Her more recent albums on the 12k label include 2008’s Bitter Sweet and her first solo album since 2014’s Nu.It.
Eight years of fragile and amorphous memories form into layers of sounds intended to open the whole body to the celestial world. Using generative compositional methods, she recorded fragments of melodies on days of full moons, new moons, planetary conjunctions and around other notable events happening in the skies. Her digital sounds take on a humble, human sound as she observes the vastness above.
In addition to Sawako, listeners to Stella Epoca also can hear a guitar played at the dawn of the winter solstice by AOKI,Haytao; field recordings at the moment of a total solar eclipse in Argentina by 12k’s Federico Durand; and further contributions from Haruka Nakamura, ARAKI Shin, and Yukiko Hayakawa, also connected within Sawako’s framework of space and time, brings a multi-instrumental richness to the album. Rounding out the conceptual framework is the album art, also generatively created by creative coder Kynd, whose computing handicraft perfectly visualizes Sawako’s hybrid approach to her digital/analogue music. The cover art launches the album’s ride.
I feel a contemplative mood while the light changes in the sky, “Eclipse Dawn” (7:41) I hear a road and a guitar, and what sounds to me like rattling small objects in glass jars, which float about while the time passes, very delicate. “Space Dive” (4:31) takes off with electronic drones and a distant multiverse choir of vocals with new textures developing and receding. “Enquan” (4:26) feels to me like a keyboard coachride, odd sounds and the drones will protect us. Track 4 brings breezy tides and new waters, “Dream Float” (3:09).
A whirlpool of mirrors ::
A piano in a noisy room, casual “Night Leaf” (3:04) creates a loop atmosphere, the piano chords hypnotize and the room noises unfold through the hall of mirrors, a simple dream. The woodwinds are amazingly understated, forming a subtle magical melodic enhanced dimension within the drone. Then it all changes, just for a pause things get more dense. “Sol Soil” (3:15) brings harsher bowed electronic strings and vibrating drone layers that do not hide their energy.
Piano and ethereal poetics, “Sky Rebirth” (2:25) with enchanting vocals echoing gloriously above the piano and electronica. My favorite track is “Tiny Conjunction” (2:12), with those subtle woodwinds blending with sweet fragile singing sotto voce, a guitar strums, grand horn dreams bring it through to electronic fields of bright green growing colors under an endless sky of keyboards, “Fertile Emptiness” (5:30). We coast thoughtfully until coming to “Sweet Hygiea Grass” (5:44), where I hear some multi tracked sustained singing loop patterns, draped about various instruments, eventually joined by increasing odd sound fragments such as rattling small objects in jars.
A whirlpool of mirrors, fascinating or transitional, the eleventh track is “Fennel Tunnel” (5:22), a loop portal opens under the warm garden into a magic land, with fluttering woodwind birds weaving in from a distance. This one is really my favorite, also the other one I mentioned. Stardust candies!
She is pleasantly puzzling over momentary situations, “Moonlight Wav” (3:22) and I hear a melodic vibration, sung in dreamy English while deep within the reverberations. Up high, strings and vocals coil high above the oceanic darkness. “Soranikaeru” (1:37) I think I hear hand-turned music boxes with crunchy rustling sounds. To close this stellar journey we rest in “Field Memory” (2:30), a quiet concert of little rattles, kalimba plunks, tiny chimes and sounds of motion. There is no tension while remembering certain moments. Go outside on a hot day and feel the Sun on your skin. Now imagine how much energy our Sun emits in an entire human lifetime.
From the liner notes ::
Sawako: apple, aqua, fennel, sweet grass, waves, voice
Federico Durand: solar eclipse + small objects
AOKI,hayato: guitar + winter solstice
ARAKI Shin: flute, sax, clarinet, meyer optik
haruka nakamura: piano
Yukiko Hayakawa: sho (Japanese Sheng)
incense smoke: memory flows
gift_ (Toshikazu Goto + Fumiko Ikeda): soundscape + reading
Kynd: double bass + entangled computing also jacket art
Taylor Deupree: mixing tracks 7, 8, 10 & 12 + mastering
Always looking for some extra color, to enjoy a whimsical dialog and to be more faithful to the artist’s ideas in this work, here are now some questions for, and replies from Sawako:
Igloo :: Human beings have many unique characteristics compared with other creatures here on Earth, what is music?
Sawako :: From the points of view of the various relationships among terrestrial creatures, music provides a possibility of extending communication.
What is listening?
Listening is opening your ears and body to the world.
Are you able to bring music back from your nocturnal dreams?
Yes. Actually, it was more than music — something like the source of music, which is nowadays not expressed with the five senses of human beings.
Where do you dream of going (vacation, tour, exploration, by time machine, etc)?
Tibet, South America, Iceland, and the Milky Way, both today and in ancient times.
What would you like to try that you have not tried yet?
I would like to try to go to meet Japanese dolphins in the ocean — and maybe try to learn dolphin songs for them.
Tokyo-based sound designer Sawako and 12k have created Stella Epoca, which means the time of the star and moving into a new age. The ideas of sky maps and planetary frequencies were the inspirations behind Sawako’s dreamlike sounds. She references orbits, sound waves and light that shower the earth and all living things in ephemeral encounters of sparkle and resonance.
12k is a New York based experimental music label run by artist Taylor Deupree that has decisively defined and developed its own concept of minimalism in the realms of experimental and ambient music since 1997.
Stella Epoca is available on 12k. [Bandcamp]
